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Veal Loaf

A dish of veal croquettes made with veal, eggs, milk, onions, spices, and bread crumbs, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix chopped veal, eggs, sweet milk, chopped onions, pepper, salt, and celery seed.

  2. Add enough bread crumbs to form a single croquette mixture.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes and coat them with browned bread crumbs.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with ½ cup sweet milk, salt, and pepper.

  3. Dip each croquette in the egg mixture, then roll in sifted bread crumbs.

  4. Place the croquettes in a cool place until ready to fry.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a deep pan until boiling, then fry the croquettes until golden brown on all sides.

  2. Remove and drain on brown paper to absorb excess grease.

  3. Serve with a sprig of parsley on top.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquette, giving it a meaty texture when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the croquettes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.
Onions
Add moisture and savory flavor to the meat mixture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the egg wash, helping the crumb coating adhere and brown richly.

The step that matters

Chilling before frying. Keeping the shaped croquettes cool helps them firm up and hold their shape, so they do not fall apart or absorb excess oil in the hot pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, milk, pepper, celery, bread, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, milk, pepper, celery, bread, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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